User reviews

Brilliant! Engaging throughout. My first special of Marc, reminded me slightly of CK, but a slightly less dark version. Overall, very little content that was flat. In fact the special felt a bit short at the end. Draws a lot from his actual neuroticsm and his marriage and drug abuse. Now that I'm loving his podcast as well, will go dig his older stuff- a late discovery for me.

Maron has it down by now. What makes his comedy awesome is the fact that it looks like nothing is planned. Of course a part of you watching it knows that it's a taped comedy special so that by this point as he has all the cameras around him he's set to go (and Goldthwait directing so it's professional and knowing of how Maron will go into one beat into another and how to cut to him motioning forward just a little).

But he has a stream of consciousness approach - Richard Lewis is a giant influence as he's said on his podcast - where he'll dip into other topics when he's supposedly about to start talking about the main subject, and often the diversions are just as funny if not funnier than the main subject at hand (i.e. his Captain Billy story with a digression about cereal and the "psychopaths" who ate Captain Crunch).

It's a great set, though it's not perfect. There's a whole wrap-around part of the title, where he has a meta run-through for the special as a "blogger" character writing about the moments where Marc feels that he might be screwing up (i.e. just as he's about to talk about religion, one of the better set pieces on the show, his blogger character goes into a digression about how the audience won't be prepared for it or think it's too heavy or other, "More later," as he continues to wait to see what's next to blog). It reaches a point where it hits a high mark, where the running gag is funniest, but he keeps going with it and it's the law of diminishing returns. It's not by too much but enough to think 'enough already.'

If you've seen Thinky Pain, which is on Netflix (this is on Hulu, previously an Epix event only), you'll know what to expect: he's a comic who talks about himself but also stretches it out so that we can relate and understand things going on in his life. Topics range from cats to anger issues to what Jesus went through ("I'm getting killed cause of a s***ty crowd? I can relate to that, and then I'm resurrected on stage here" something to that effect), and relationships. He's the sort of comic who, sitting 85% of the time on his stool (he only gets up when he has to, and being tightly wound is part of who he is), will talk about how he gets talked to by a miserable married guy - the kind that made him realize not having a "normal" married life with kids isn't so bad - and how "you're the only guy I can talk to about this, thanks for being a friend" turns into when the guy gets home "Yeah, Marc's such a sad guy all by himself" - and you know exactly what he's talking about.

In short, it's personal, it's fiery, and if you like his style you'll like him. It's therapy as brilliant stand-up, for the most part. 8.5/10

I have been a fan of the podcast for a long time and have caught his stand up acts for the last few times. This one is a triumph of his growth as a performer, This style is like coming to know yourself better, correcting perception and maturing emotionally and spiritually. I relate to his thinking so much, I'm a couple of years older and have even more time practicing the principles on a path of sobriety. I laughed so hard in many parts and never felt like he missed the mark with any awkward jokes. Marc Maron has developed an interesting new gimmick of having an inner blogging critic commenting on the progress, it's a bit reminiscent of Jim Gaffigan's gimmick. It worked really well. Overall the whole flow and pacing of his act has really improved and I have to rate this as the best stand up performance among a field of other great talents.